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Emmaus Small Groups
What is an Emmaus Group?
 Emmaus
groups usually have 4-12 members who meet once a week for an hour and
a half. Group Leaders are not teachers, they are parishioners who receive
group facilitation training designed specifically for Emmaus. These meetings
aren’t “bible study” and they don’t exist just
for fellowship.
Emmaus groups are built on four “pillars”:
1. Mutual care and support:
Emmaus groups are to safe places to share who one really is...what one’s
struggle with faith is.... how God has been present. Group members can
become very important spiritual friends, most people who join an Emmaus
group treasure the relationships they form.
2. Prayer and Worship:
Groups organize informal worship liturgies and pray at every meeting.
They pray because they know their lives will be more fulfilled by prayerfully
connecting in partnership with God. Each group decides on how it will
worship together.
3. Biblical reflection:
It is through reflective study that we really grow in faith and in our
spiritual formation. Emmaus groups use a unique method called “Biblical
Equipping”, which enables a group to read a spiritual book or book
of the Bible in such a way that both the content and direct application
to one’s own personal life are intentionally addressed. The content
of a group’s study comes alive in new and meaningful ways.
4. Ministry:
Group ministry projects galvanize the sense of community, as well as the
sense that Christian followers are Christ’s partners in the bringing
about of God’s reign of justice, peace, and wholeness on earth.
Instead of a regular meeting one week, a group may choose to do a service
project together--be it an AIDS lunch, cooking and serving for our ministry
at St. Joseph’s Center, working on a Habitat House, for example.
A group may commit to bring in new members as its mission; or the group
may choose to start a new ministry out in the community; or pledge to
support an existing ministry either inside or outside St. Matthew’s.
The idea is that Christian disciples reach out to bring Christ to the
world.
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